because medical transcription really does matter

What does a career at home in medical transcription really look like?

If it looks anything like what it looks like as a student, I can certainly tell you that! I’m not in a career as an MT just yet because I’m studying. Here’s how it looks for me right now on an average period through my course.

On a typical studying weekday, I get up and get the kids to school. On the way home, I run any errands that require attention. After that, I head home and open the mail, email, update my blogs, feed the cats, etc. I will make myself a coffee (I used to buy myself a coffee, but that chapter has happily ended.) and if I haven’t already logged onto my course, I usually will do so at this point.

my current study space at home

I will work away at my course, taking frequent breaks to help my body and mind. Sometimes, in medical transcription, if it’s particularly hard to make out what the doctor is saying, it actually helps to stop and give your ears a break. The first time I did this I was very surprised to hear a transcription better when I came back and had a relisten. What a difference it makes to take a break. I’ve been sold on break-taking since then. So I may go change a load of laundry, or water plants, load the dishwasher, or take a close look at something that came in the mail. If I don’t feel like I need to get up from my desk and stretch, I will update my blogs, or tweet something on twitter, or catch up on what my friends and family are doing on facebook, or I might clean something. These little breaks are all relatively brief. If I end up getting carried away with something that takes more time than I intended, then I make up the time later on in the day or on the weekend to try to catch up to where I’d like to be.

me, studying medical transcription online

I have my mobile phone alarm set to alarm me sometime after 3 to go pick up the Jazz and the Izz from school. After that, we might occasionally stop in at the library for a bit, or on occasion get a treat. Izzy’s favorite is a pop from the health food store. If there any additional errands that need to be run, I take the kids with me and accomplish what needs to be done on the way home.

Once we get home, family life begins again, I shift into mother mode, and until supper is finished, I don’t return to my schoolwork. Actually, some days I do, especially when I feel like I need to get more practice or studying done. Thanks to my supportive husband, I can do that. He’s awesome.

Some nights, I take in the kids’ extracurricular, while other nights when they are out I take the opportunity to be in the house alone to study. We will also try to bring the game table out regularly to interact personally with our kids and have marvelous family time fighting half the night over Uno or Scribblish or Scattergories. (We seriously need to do more of that.) On nights that I feel like I just need to rest, we will sit and pick a movie together, or go for a drive out in the country. At the end of nearly every night, my husband leads us in a family devotion time which sometimes turns into those awesome discussion times. Sometimes they don’t. (You know what I mean.🙂 )

I am thankful for this, and it makes me happy to have this freedom. Though school is sometimes quite challenging, I have the freedom and flexibility to choose whether I want to study more that day or not. On the weekends, I usually try to take at least one day off schoolwork, but that all depends on what is going on in my family. I love being able to take the time to do the things that I need to do as a mother, and contribute my time to my kids and husband when they need me.

Though I can’t yet tell you for certain what a career at home in medical transcription looks like, from my research before entering school, it sounded a lot like how it unfolds for me right now. I can tell you that once I am through school and working somewhere for a while, I will definitely create a new post and tell you exactly what it’s like for me to be working at home. I don’t think it will look much different than this, other than I won’t be spending extra time studying, and I’ll likely be out and about doing stuff a little more often like volunteering at the kids’ school, or something like that…after I’ve put my work time in, of course.